Many products have been introduced to animal and pet owners the purpose of which is to promote oral exercise, clean teeth, reduce problem chewing, and/or encourage play. These products (known as chews) have been provided in a wide variety of shapes, are made of many materials (including rubber, plastic, cordage and webbing, animal hides and the like), and often provide for insertion of food items to attract the animal (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,207,420, 5,947,061, 5,553,570, 5,819,690, 5,758,604, 5,595,142, 5,865,147 and 5,799,616).
It has long been known that dental prophylaxis is promoted in pets, and especially dogs, by the scraping of relatively hard surfaces against the pet's teeth encountered in selective chewing (for example, bone chewing). Many now known chews are constructed to serve this purpose and some are even molded with the intent to enhance dental prophylaxis by provision of protrusions of various sorts at the chew's surface structure (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. Re.34,352).
Such heretofore known chews have not proven altogether satisfactory in achieving the goal of improved dental prophylaxis, however, differences in tooth sizes and shapes, as well as jaw and/or mouth configuration, of various animals having proved to be a difficult design issue. Moreover, while all such heretofore known devices may provide some level of gingival stimulation (as does bone chewing, for example), such chews often do not provide well for gingival exercise and sub-gingival particle release. Further improvements could thus be utilized.